Kathariya Tharu also known as Kathoriya Tharu is one of the Indo Aryan languages spoken by the

Tharu people The Tharu people are an ethnic group living in the Terai in southern Nepal and northern India. They speak Tharu languages. They are recognized as an official ethnicity by the Government of Nepal. In the Indian Terai, they live foremost in Uttara ...

Nepal Nepal, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mainly situated in the Himalayas, but also includes parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China Ch ...

and

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. It is a language spoken in the

Sudurpashchim Province Sudurpashchim Province () is one of the seven Provinces of Nepal, provinces established by the Constitution of Nepal, new constitution of Nepal which was adopted on 20 September 2015. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China to the north, ...

of Nepal, particularly in the

Kailali District Kailali District (), a part of Sudurpashchim Province in Terai plain, is one of the 77 districts of Nepal. The district, with Dhangadhi as its district headquarters, covers an area of and has a population of 911,155 (2021 census) and (775,709 ...

, including areas like Bardagoriya, Bhajani, Ghodaghodi, Joshipur. Additionally, it is spoken in the

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh ( ; UP) is a States and union territories of India, state in North India, northern India. With over 241 million inhabitants, it is the List of states and union territories of India by population, most populated state in In ...

state of

, specifically in

Bahraich Bahraich is a city and a municipal board in Bahraich district in the state of Uttar Pradesh, India. Located on the Saryu River, a tributary of the Ghaghara river, Bahraich is north-east of Lucknow, the state capital. The districts of B ...

and

Lakhimpur Kheri Lakhimpur Kheri district is the largest Districts of Uttar Pradesh, district in Uttar Pradesh, India, on the border with Nepal. Its administrative capital is the city of Lakhimpur, Uttar Pradesh, Lakhimpur. Lakhimpur Kheri district is a part o ...

districts near the Nepal border.Boehm, Edward Daniel and Eichentopf, Stephanie and Mitchell, Jessica. 2012. A Sociolinguistic Study of Dangaura Tharu and Related Varieties. Central Department of Linguistics Tribhuvan University, Nepal and SIL International. vii+183pp. Dan Raj Regmi. 2015. Exploring relationships among the major Indo-Aryan languages of Tarai in Nepal. Nepalese Linguistics 30. 122-131. There are speech differences between the dialects spoken in Nepal and those in India. The lexical similarity of Kathariya Tharu is around 70%–76% with Dangaura Tharu and Rana Tharu, 66% with

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

, 66%–69% with Buksa, 63% with Central Tharu, and 51%–59% with Kochila Tharu. In terms of linguistic characteristics, Kathariya Tharu follows an SOV (Subject-Object-Verb) word order, uses postpositions, and has a tendency for noun head final (unmarked). There has been some language shifting to Hindi, but Kathariya Tharu is still used by all, alongside

and Nepali in the region.

References

{{IndoAryan-lang-stub Tharu culture Languages of Nepal Languages of India Languages of Uttar Pradesh Bihari languages